Cheaters on Strava..

Zyzz

I've noticed since I started using Strava (past month) that there a quite a number of KOMs with silly results that are clearly not done on a bike. I won't name or shame anyone and I know there isn't much I can do but it is fairly disappointing when you burst your b*llocks on a certain section and end up down the ranks because of these people.

I don't race or cycle with a club (yet) so Strava is really all I have to compete with so to speak, is there any way to report these or get them checked out?

buffalo

Yes, flag the ride as suspicious (not the segment), and it'll be removed from the leaderboard. But make sure you're sure.

mosstin

Zyzz wrote: »

I've noticed since I started using Strava (past month) that there a quite a number of KOMs with silly results that are clearly not done on a bike. I won't name or shame anyone and I know there isn't much I can do but it is fairly disappointing when you burst your b*llocks on a certain section and end up down the ranks because of these people.

I don't race or cycle with a club (yet) so Strava is really all I have to compete with so to speak, is there any way to report these or get them checked out?

Pedal faster.

C3PO

Does it really matter?

Zorba

Zyzz wrote: »

I've noticed since I started using Strava (past month) that there a quite a number of KOMs with silly results that are clearly not done on a bike. I won't name or shame anyone and I know there isn't much I can do but it is fairly disappointing when you burst your b*llocks on a certain section and end up down the ranks because of these people.

I don't race or cycle with a club (yet) so Strava is really all I have to compete with so to speak, is there any way to report these or get them checked out?

Check the dates on the koms because there might be races held on the route which will inflate the speeds. Like snowtown hill in stamullen the kom has an average speed of 26k or something but it was obviously done during the stamullen gp. I've come to the conclusion the only way I'll ever get up the leaderboard on that one is to do the stamullen race.

buffalo

C3PO wrote: »

Does it really matter?

It's nice to have an accurate picture of the possibilities of a climb.

I was looking at a climb used in the Rás last year, and there was one guy who'd gone up it (not in the Rás) a full two minutes faster than any of the pro riders. I looked him up, and he was a good climber, but not that good. Flagged the ride, NO REGRETS!

joe50

anyone using a phone instead of a garmin is a cheater in my book.. disproportionate number of dodgy times set on iphones afaict

Zyzz

C3PO wrote: »

Does it really matter?

Did you read my post at all? :rolleyes:

Zyzz

buffalo wrote: »

Yes, flag the ride as suspicious (not the segment), and it'll be removed from the leaderboard. But make sure you're sure.

Noted.

I know there are loads of people better than me, which is portrayed in some really good results..but then there are others that are outrageous :pac:

theholyghost

I've often joked about setting strava records in the car but I didn't think anyone would actually do it!

Darkglasses

joe50 wrote: »

anyone using a phone instead of a garmin is a cheater in my book.. disproportionate number of dodgy times set on iphones afaict

Why? The free app does the same job at a fraction the price...Surely it's easier to cheat with a Garmin than with the phone? With the Garmin, you've upload the file to your computer, where you can use digital EPO or whatever. Strava uploads immediately from my phone?

el tel

How accurate are GPS receivers anyway? If they are +/- 50m sure that could add or remove 100m to any segment.

joe50

Darkglasses wrote: »

Why? The free app does the same job at a fraction the price...Surely it's easier to cheat with a Garmin than with the phone? With the Garmin, you've upload the file to your computer, where you can use digital EPO or whatever. Strava uploads immediately from my phone?

because the gps readings on phones are a good bit less accurate, especially on shorter climbs ~30/40s long, doing a climb on a phone or a garmin can be the difference between a KOM and second place

Zyzz

theholyghost wrote: »

I've often joked about setting strava records in the car but I didn't think anyone would actually do it!

Ive seen a KOM with a speed of 120km/h..

As the user has said above I better start pedalling faster :rolleyes:

Captain Havoc

I understand why people cheat for money but to do it on Strava would have to make you a grade A tool.

C3PO

Zyzz wrote: »

Did you read my post at all? :rolleyes:

Yes I did and I'm a big fan of Strava too! It's a great tool for recording and tracking your training and for comparing segment times against your own previous ones and against people who you know! But I don't see why you would get upset because somebody who you've never met is posting a time that's better than yours whether they're cheating or not! Anyway didn't mean to cause offence!

Dermot Illogical

C3PO wrote: »

But I don't see why you would get upset because somebody you who you've never met is posting a time that's better than yours whether they're cheating or not!

Jaysus! I would be if I thought they were. A lot of hard work goes into this strava malarkey y'know.

Andy Magic

I've noticed this also with one individual constantly, it pisses me off.. I never knew you could report it though!

Zyzz

Dermot Illogical wrote: »

Jaysus! I would be if I thought they were. A lot of hard work goes into this strava malarkey y'know.

Dermot Illogical

Zyzz wrote: »

If it's working it'll return a negative reading this time.
:cool:

Mr. Grieves

I don't believe anyone is deliberately cheating.

People sometimes accidentally leave thir GPS on in their car and set unbelievable times, but these get flagged pretty quickly (it's obvious if the KOM is much faster than the person in second place and the rest of the times are close).

The accuracy of GPS units is limited, leading to large errors on short segments and it doesn't matter if it's a Garmin or an iPhone. Don't bother with segments less than 1km - read here for info about this.

Zyzz

Dermot Illogical wrote: »

If it's working it'll return a negative reading this time.
:cool:

Sarcasm doesn't come across very well on boards..

Mr. Grieves wrote: »

I don't believe anyone is deliberately cheating.

People sometimes accidentally leave thir GPS on in their car and set unbelievable times, but these get flagged pretty quickly (it's obvious if the KOM is much faster than the person in second place and the rest of the times are close).

The accuracy of GPS units is limited, leading to large errors on short segments and it doesn't matter if it's a Garmin or an iPhone. Don't bother with segments less than 1km - read here for info about this.

Oh I fully understand that, but then again there are definitely people out there who are doing it on purpose. Im just glad Lance isn't riding my routes :pac:

route66

Cheating on Strava is easy - you don't even need a car. Just use digitalepo

But why bother?

I'm fairly slow so I don't pay too much attention to leaderboards; I just compare my own times.

Craig06

I reported one as the segment is 2km long and with speed bumps. You could even see the car slow down and speed up. She only logged 1 ride lol

Beasty

Zyzz wrote: »

Ive seen a KOM with a speed of 120km/h..

I know a Boardsie who averaged over that one day - didn't know they allowed bikes on the M1 - anyway when I pointed it it he removed it before he got reported (to the Guards;))

Of course I won't name and shame that particular ex Liverpool footballer Boardsie (apparently he left the Garmin switched on on the bike which was on the car)

DirkVoodoo

Just change the default leaderboard view to show your friends.

Then you can accuse them of cheating to their faces.

That's what I do.

Zyzz

Beasty wrote: »

I know a Boardsie who averaged over that one day - didn't know they allowed bikes on the M1 - anyway when I pointed it it he removed it before he got reported (to the Guards;))

Of course I won't name and shame that particular ex Liverpool footballer Boardsie (apparently he left the Garmin switched on on the bike which was on the car)

Ha I have seen some M1 routes aswel..must be motorway legal bikes

DirkVoodoo wrote: »

Just change the default leaderboard view to show your friends.

Then you can accuse them of cheating to their faces.

That's what I do.

What if I have no friends..

detones

So is riding in a group or a race and recording strava times kind of cheating too? Or does strava allow you to distinguish between solo and group rides. I have used strava it gives me a good benchmark of how sh1te I really am. How somebody self propelled a mechanically propelled vehicle 33kmhr uphill at Ardgillan hill never know!!

Beasty

detones wrote: »

How somebody self propelled a mechanically propelled vehicle 33kmhr uphill at Ardgillan hill never know!!

As the top 10 times were set the day the Ras came into town last year you can probably assume there was some drafting going on. The first non-Ras time was set by a Boardsie

detones

Beasty wrote: »

As the top 10 times were set the day the Ras came into town last year you can probably assume there was some drafting going on. The first non-Ras time was set by a Boardsie

Yeah Ardgillan hill is a good place to watch the Ras too. They usually pass a few times there. Would not have thought those lads would be using Strava in a race. Thougt the times from ryan sherlock and co. might have been training runs or something. Puts those times into perspective and a lot of the segments around this area!

Still think it would be good if you could have "solo" versus group times highlighted on Strava. Maybe you can. Would require a fair bit of honesty though.

RyanAndrew

I recently put comments on two peoples pages on a particular segment , being polite about it and they both "cropped" their rides no problem. All very civilised. The two in question looked liked they had been MTB and drove home. The current KOM is 5 secs faster (@ 63.7k is almost 10kph faster) than the next but looks like he is a serious player - even has his own racing blog - so I won't be challenging him

TheBlaaMan

detones wrote: »

They usually pass a few times there. Would not have thought those lads would be using Strava in a race.

Oh, but they do.......

The Ras went up Brown Mountain in Co Kilkenny on 28 May 2011 and no-one has subsequently got within a minute of the times set that day............take a look at the top 7 times and then 'everyone else', here http://app.strava.com/activities/42781945#720062408

Wishbone Ash

Zyzz wrote:

I fully understand that, but then again there are definitely people out there who are doing it on purpose

But if someone was cheating on purpose I doubt they'd draw attention to it by posting a ridiculously fast time. You can also check the rest of their ride to see what sort of speed they are averaging.

What puzzles me is that those who accidently leave their Garmin running while the bike is on the car don't remove the ride after uploading it especially when they see a KOM.

Beasty

An alternative to deleting a ride is to simply crop it, but I suspect a lot of people don't even realise they can do this

seamus

Yeah, I only found the crop function last week. Also handy for chopping off the very end of the ride where you turn into work/home, etc. The privacy filter goes out quite far and eats into one of my segments.

I don't think many people (if anyone) goes out of their way to claim a KOM in the car. If nothing else, a quick look at their stats will usually reveal whether they're taking the piss. I'd say the vast majority are simple error, and you look at the ride and see that they went up the M50 at 100km/h.

nilhg

Had a strange one recently, there was a little hill climb segment not too far from here which because it was lightly used looked gettable for me, so one morning when I was out over that way for a spin with my daughter I gave it full gas over the top of the hill then eased off and waited for her, went home, uploaded the spin and happy days I had got my KOM.

A few of the hardy boys round here noticed and were slagging me about heading over there and taking it off me so I wasn't too surprised when I got the OOopps email a while ago to say that it was gone. Checked strava later on to see who had taken it and was surprised to see no new spins but that yes I was no longer KOM. Couldn't figure out what was happening till I noticed that the segment was gone from .6KM to 1.2KM, I have to be careful here but it seems that the segment was edited to lengthen it just past the point where I stopped to wait for Emma.......


I know it was easy to make a new one to the top of the hill but I just thought it was silly what had happened.


My pal Gav took both of them a day or so later anyway;)

Raam

Beasty wrote: »

As the top 10 times were set the day the Ras came into town last year you can probably assume there was some drafting going on. The first non-Ras time was set by a Boardsie

That was done in a race too, well a hill climb TT. :pac:

petethedrummer

I've heard that a lad I used to work with used to set strava times in his car to wind up the cyclists. It was a large multinational in a large industrial park with a sprint segment set up between two roundabouts. There was an unspoken sprint war between cyclists who hardly knew each other. He used to edge it up faster in his car for the laugh.

dedocdude

petethedrummer wrote: »

I've heard that a lad I used to work with used to set strava times in his car to wind up the cyclists.

that to me is what Strava is about - honestly not trying to wind lads up here but it should only be a bit of a laugh, dont plan you rides around going to beat a 600m time up a hill. If you cant beat the times - then just try and beat your times - like its aways been, testing yourself on a particular hill or stretch of road to see how u are going.

I dont use Strava by the way, just my opinion of it.

buffalo

dedocdude wrote: »

that to me is what Strava is about - honestly not trying to wind lads up here but it should only be a bit of a laugh, dont plan you rides around going to beat a 600m time up a hill. If you cant beat the times - then just try and beat your times - like its aways been, testing yourself on a particular hill or stretch of road to see how u are going.

I dont use Strava by the way, just my opinion of it.

Whaaaat? Screw that, Strava is exactly for beating other lads. I'm still awaiting the right wind to retake my Howth KOM from Raam, and another from Mr Grieves... that time will come gentlemen, I will have my crown again! muahahahaa!

amjon.

I use Strava the odd time. Noticed that one of my rides last summer where I got a few KOM's is not showing up on the leader board. When I go onto the segment on the ride it says 10 minutes for the climb is my time but my best time is down as a slower ride of 11 minutes?

seamus

amjon. wrote: »

I use Strava the odd time. Noticed that one of my rides last summer where I got a few KOM's is not showing up on the leader board. When I go onto the segment on the ride it says 10 minutes for the climb is my time but my best time is down as a slower ride of 11 minutes?

Yeah, it can do weird stuff. You should also check that you haven't flagged the ride as private.
Have a look at the "total time" for your ten minute one. This is where I get caught all the time. I have my commute set up as a private segment, and this morning got a moving time PR by 45 seconds or so, but when I looked at the total time (damn traffic lights), it was only third.

Also had a hill climb that I hammered up while leading a newbie ride and then stopped at the top to wait. I stopped about 10m short of the end of the segment, so the climb itself was about 90 seconds but came up as 4 minutes on Strava. D'oh.

dedocdude

buffalo wrote: »

Whaaaat? Screw that, Strava is exactly for beating other lads. I'm still awaiting the right wind to retake my Howth KOM from Raam, and another from Mr Grieves... that time will come gentlemen, I will have my crown again! muahahahaa!

ok, well best of luck with it so - its not for everyone i guess. i dont have a playstation either!

I guess dont get hung up on the cheaters - the sport is full of cheaters we know this - dont presume the lads that went up the hills in the Ras were not cheating either -

Wishbone Ash

seamus wrote: »

I stopped about 10m short of the end of the segment, so the climb itself was about 90 seconds but came up as 4 minutes on Strava. D'oh.

That often happens me on long rides in unchartered waters. I'll stop for a break for 10 minutes or so and discover later that I was in a segment!

I have some woeful placings on a few segments in London as I got a puncture (on a rental) and had to walk for miles looking for a bike shop which would fix it on the spot (most wouldn't). I left the Garmin running and must have crossed dozens of segments while walking. On one I'm in 2,600th place! :eek:

seamus

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

I have some woeful placings on a few segments in London as I got a puncture (on a rental) and had to walk for miles looking for a bike shop which would fix it on the spot (most wouldn't). I left the Garmin running and must have crossed dozens of segments while walking. On one I'm in 2,600th place! :eek:

Set your garmin to auto-pause when travelling less than 7km/h. Problem solved

petethedrummer

buffalo wrote: »

Whaaaat? Screw that, Strava is exactly for beating other lads.

If I had strava this is exactly what I'd be doing. I'd be out on the Chapelizod Road on a track bike in a skin suit waiting for an easterly wind. So for my own safety I don't partake.

doozerie

Remember too that not everyone on Strava is "competing". There are a couple of segments where I noticed recently that I am placed ahead of Ryan Sherlock. Either myself, and those above me on the leaderboard, are truly impressive riders (in fairness, some of them might be, but I'm certainly not), or Ryan Sherlock rode those segments during a very casua ride, and probably while pedaling with only one leg.

So you might well bust a gut to move up a leaderboard (I'm guilty of this too, I'm a shallow person) against people who are not even trying. Taking it seriously is a recipe for disappointment really. Having said that I don't like seeing people top leaderboards with farcical times either, they are taking it too seriously too if they feel the need to do that, but I tend to agree with the views above that this most often happens by accident rather than design.

CramCycle

I got 3 KOMs around Stepaside the other day, just nudged into 1st place by about a second or two or a km/hr faster. I looked at the route and realised I had not turned off my Garmin when I bumped into the wife, who then gave me a lift home.

Ride cropped. KOMs lost.

dub_skav

CramCycle wrote: »

I got 3 KOMs around Stepaside the other day, just nudged into 1st place by about a second or two or a km/hr faster. I looked at the route and realised I had not turned off my Garmin when I bumped into the wife, who then gave me a lift home.

Ride cropped. KOMs lost.

I thought you were going to say you bumped into the wife - who paced you over the top.

buffalo

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

That often happens me on long rides in unchartered waters. I'll stop for a break for 10 minutes or so and discover later that I was in a segment!

I have some woeful placings on a few segments in London as I got a puncture (on a rental) and had to walk for miles looking for a bike shop which would fix it on the spot (most wouldn't). I left the Garmin running and must have crossed dozens of segments while walking. On one I'm in 2,600th place! :eek:

I had a time of 1hr 45mins on a segment where everyone else had <2mins. Stopped into my Granny for a cup of tea. Garmin was on auto-pause, but that's what happened. I've since corrected it, by getting the KOM.

Tar.Aldarion

Pretty sad to do that but all you can do is report it. I'm not bothered, I'm quite slow and try to beat myself, I'm destroying tar from last week :pac: but I can see why it is very annoying.